The ROT209 – OTP2005 (Bucharest/Otopeni-Chisinau) flight, operated with the Boeing 737-800 aircraft, was 3 hours and 10 minutes late last night for technical reasons.
At takeoff, against the background of unfavorable weather conditions, the plane was struck by lightning. In these circumstances, with the information received from the pilots, the flight was abandoned, and the Boeing 737-82R plane returned to the ground, in Bucharest, and was sent for technical inspection.
A new aircraft, Boeing 737, in which all 53 passengers were boarded, took off from Otopeni International Airport, and the race was carried out without further incident.
No passengers or crew members were harmed. The original aircraft is now undergoing technical checks. In this context, we mention the fact that, based on their essential use, aircraft are built with a structure suitable for protection against this type of incident, and lightning cannot affect them to the extent of causing major malfunctions that would endanger the flight activity.